Research on pointer location of multi-pointer meter

Aiming at the problem of pointer location in water meter like multi-pointer meter, a pointer location algorithm based on pointer position and structure feature is raised in this paper. The algorithm first uses edge detection and mathematical morphology processing method to filter the effective area. Then, it takes advantage of the pointers' position feature and structure feature to locate pointers accurately. Position feature is that pointers are homogeneously distributed at a circle center which is also the center of dial while the structure feature is that the root of pointer is a circle. The method can locate the point-area accurately with little computation. Compared with other methods based on Hough transform, it shortens the system's running time effectively and has great significance to the real-time automatic reading system.